With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Lucille Wadler Lortel
Theatre/Dance/Film
1900 – 1999
- Biography/Description of Work
Born in Manhattan, Lucille Wadler attended Adelphi University in Brooklyn and beginning in 1920 studied acting and theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She assumed Lortel as a stage surname, and made her Broadway debut in 1925. She retired from acting upon her marriage to industrialist and philanthropist Louis Schweitzer in 1931. However her professional interest did not decline, and in 1947 she founded an experimental theater on her estate straddling Westport and Norwalk. The White Barn Theatre premiered many plays, including by playwrights Eva Marie Saint, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee and Samuel Beckett. Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, 5 of which were nominated for Tony Awards: “As Is” by William M. Hoffman, “Angels Fall” by Lanford Wilson, “Blood Knot” by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema’s “Sarafina!” and “A Walk in the Woods” by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “Threepenny Opera.” Lortel donated much of her memorabilia to the Westport Public Library. The theatre itself does not survive, although its legacy does at the Westport Country Playhouse, which houses the Lucille Lortel White Barn Center.
- Sources view
- http://www.lortel.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Lortel, http://www.lortelaward.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Barn_Theatre, http://westporthistory.org/all-tours/tour-the-legendary-white-barn-theatre/, http://06880danwoog.com/tag/white-barn-theatre/, http://archive.today/qDyns#
- Associated Resource(s)